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Could Your Anxiety Be Lyme in the Brain?
01 October 2026

Could Your Anxiety Be Lyme in the Brain?

Ancient Health Podcast

About
Dr. Eboni Cornish, MD, of Amen Clinics and ILADS, returns for a third conversation, live in Nashville. She and Dr. Chris Motley talk about Lyme and other tick-borne infections in the brain: anxiety and depression, kids labeled ADHD, puberty flares, mold and memory, and why she calms the brain before treating anything. Plus her best question: when did your symptoms start, and where were you? Sources in the show notes. Educational only, not medical advice.

00:00 Depression, anxiety, and a Lyme test

00:39 Welcome: Dr. Eboni Cornish, live in Nashville 

02:20 From bored family doctor to Lyme practice 

04:13 How Lyme gets into the brain 

06:12 What a Lyme brain looks like on a SPECT scan 

08:02 The limbic loop: calm the brain 

10:21 Is neurology catching up? 

12:30 Floaters, light sensitivity, and trouble reading 

14:05 Tinnitus and sound sensitivity 

15:08 Can kids have Lyme? Pregnancy and newborns 

17:48 Why puberty can trigger a flare 

20:12 ADHD, PANS, and a gentler approach for kids 

23:32 Food, kids, and the one-food trade

 25:56 Sudden anger in children 

27:23 Joint pain and injuries that won't heal 

28:57 Teeth, gums, and cavitations 

31:09 Babesia and your red blood cells 

32:34 MTHFR, explained 

35:11 Swollen lymph nodes and lymphatic drainage

36:47 Memory loss, mold, and dementia risk 

39:42 Where were you when your symptoms started?

 41:31 Gratitude and the brain 

43:59 How your gut shapes your mood 

46:09 Her morning routine 

48:19 Saunas, baths, and cold water 

50:38 Belly breathing for kids 

51:11 Her fall speaking tour 

54:14 Where to find Dr. Cornish 

55:34 Wrap-up 

57:01 Disclaimer

Key Takeaways:

Tick-borne illness can show up in the brain. Lyme can reach the nervous system. If you have neurological symptoms and you are not getting better, Dr. Cornish says to put tick-borne disease on the list (5:16). 

Calm the brain before you push treatment. Her patients who react to everything are often stuck in fight or flight, a "limbic loop" (9:37). She starts by calming the nervous system. 

Kids get labeled. Many of her pediatric patients arrive diagnosed with ADHD or "being bad" (20:50). A sudden change in a child, over days rather than months, is worth asking your pediatrician about by name: PANS.

Trade one food, not the whole diet. She asks a reluctant kid for one food that "doesn't love your brain," and trades a supplement off the list in return (25:04). Then she asks AI for realistic swaps a family will actually eat. 

Babesia lives in red blood cells. If you have tested positive, don't donate blood. Federal blood-safety rules agree.

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Follow Dr. Eboni Cornish

https://www.instagram.com/dr.ebonicornish/

https://www.drebonicornish.com/

For more on her work: 

https://www.amenclinics.com/

https://www.ilads.org/

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